I'd Trade in the World For You
by StormWolf10
Summary: Fourth in 'The Making of Theta Tyler' series. It's Mother's Day soon, and Theta struggles to find the right present for his Mum. However, he soon has an idea and takes shelter in his Uncle Tony's flat to make the present.


**A/N: Part 4 in 'The Making of Theta Tyler' series. Title taken from Alex Day's 'The World is Mine (I Don't know Anything)' :)**

In the weeks leading up to Mother's Day, eleven year old Theta Tyler had thought long and hard about what he'd wanted to buy his Mum. However, everything he found in the shops, everything his Gran and Granddad and Uncle Tony had suggested, everything he could think of seemed inadequate. It infuriated Theta, he needed a really special present for his Mum, but the only things he could find were silly teddy bears, or bunches of flowers, or CDs that his Mum could buy herself at any time she wanted. And then, the idea struck Theta. He wasn't a normal kid, he'd been told that all his life; by school bullies, by shocked teachers, by his proud grandparents. He could feel the turn of the earth beneath the soles of his feet, he could answer maths questions in a blink of an eye, maths questions that kids five years older than him struggled to answer in their GCSEs. He was different, he was unique, and that's exactly what his present to his Mum should be. Unique. Grinning to himself, he wrote a scribbled note to his Mum, telling her he was going out, and then headed out of the house to his Uncle Tony's flat.

**~StormWolf10~**

"So, what are you making?" Tony asked, watching his nephew over the rim of his coffee mug.

"Somethin' unique," Theta answered, not looking up.

Tony smirked. The poor kid had inherited his mother's accent and, despite Jackie's and Pete's numerous attempts at reminding the eleven year old boy that he should really stop missing letters off the end of his words, Theta had never made any effort to change his accent. Of course, Rose's wasn't so bad now; twenty four years of being the Vitex heiress and having to attend numerous charity events, press conferences and parties had forced Rose to drop much of her south London accent, although it amused Tony that, in private, his sister's accent was still as strong as ever. He was glad. He didn't want her to change.

"Have you got any glue?"

Tony was startled from his thoughts to see that Theta was looking up at him expectantly. The boy was sat surrounded by old photos of him and his Mum, a large hardback book open in front of him.

"Are you making a photo album?" Tony asked his nephew, frowning.

Theta's eyes widened.

"You can't tell Mum!" Theta squeaked, jumping to his feet "It's her Mother's Day present!"

Tony chuckled, nodding and holding his hands up in surrender.

"Alright, alright, I won't tell her! I'll go get you the glue." Tony told his nephew, grinning.

**~StormWolf10~**

As Mother's Day drew closer, Theta spent more and more time at his Uncle Tony's flat. Rose was suspicious at first, but upon questioning her brother, she discovered that her son was making her a 'surprise unique Mother's Day present', and didn't enquire further- Theta was clearly putting a lot of thought and effort into the present, and Rose didn't want to ruin it by finding out what it was before the day. Theta, for his part, acted suspiciously like his father when he was hiding something, which amused Rose, Jackie and Pete in the last few days before Mother's Day- every time someone questioned him about the present, the eleven year old would squirm, scratch the back of his neck, tug his ear, shift from foot to foot and run a hand through his hair before going "We-ell,". A few years ago, that would have upset Rose, seeing so much of her late husband in her son. But over the past eleven years she had had to become accustomed to it; the truth was, Theta really was a carbon copy of his father. Of course, as far as people outside of the family (and, by extension, Torchwood) knew, the Doctor's last name had been Tyler, and so Rose hadn't had to change her name when they married, but the truth was that the Doctor- despite being human- had never settled on a 'normal' name (he had used his old nickname 'Theta' most of the time, which was how Theta got his name, but the Doctor never came up with a full name) and had only ever been known as the Doctor, which was why Theta was also a Tyler. Rose had decided many years ago that her family was…_unique_. There was no way to explain her late husband, or her son, to people without sounding strange, but Rose didn't care. What she cared about was that her son was a loving, compassionate little boy who- she knew- would have made his Dad proud.

**~StormWolf10~**

Mother's Day finally arrived, and Rose was woken early by Theta jumping on her bed.

"Theta, it's only quarter to nine!" Rose complained, glancing at her alarm clock "You know that you don't wake me until nine on weekends!"

Theta blushed. He knew that very well. That had been a rule since he was three years old. His Mum had put that rule in place when he had continually woken her at half past six every Saturday and Sunday despite Rose working full time during the week at a London restaurant as a waitress.

"But if I didn't wake you now, your breakfast would get cold," Theta explained quietly.

Rose sighed and sat up, expecting the usual slice of toast and a cup of coffee. And so, she was perplexed to see the full English breakfast and mug of coffee sat on a tray on the chest of drawers by the door.

"Theta," Rose said slowly, still staring in confusion at the breakfast "how did you manage to cook that yourself?"

"Oh, I didn't," Theta answered, crossing to the chest of drawers and bringing a large wrapped present and a card over "Uncle Tony cooked it."

"Uncle Tony cooked it?" Rose repeated as she accepted the present and card.

Theta nodded.

"Yeah, he popped in on his way to Gran and Granddad's to cook breakfast," Theta explained, climbing back onto the bed to sit beside his Mum "said that he'd help because Dad wasn't here to help,"

Rose stared at her son in shock, making a mental note to thank her brother when they saw him later on at the Mansion.

"Well go on then! Open your card and present!" Theta instructed suddenly.

Rose nodded, speechless, and opened the card. It was nothing spectacular, of course, but she loved it anyway. It was one of those cards that you edited online and wrote your own message and included a photo. Yet another thing she'd need to thank her brother for, Rose supposed. However, it was the present that shocked her. As she opened it, she saw that it was a large square hardback book, dark blue in colour and tied shut with a matching ribbon. TARDIS blue. Rose opened the book carefully, her hands shaking as she undid the ribbon. As she flicked through the pages, she saw that Theta had filled the book with photos. Most of the photos were of her and Theta, ranging from when he was quite literally only a minute or two old, to more recent photos taken only a month or so ago. However, there were also a few photos of her and the Doctor, from just after they found out Rose was expecting. Only a few weeks before he died taking the bullet for her. All the photos had presumably been gathered by Theta- which did explain why her printer had strangely run out of ink despite her not printing anything recently- from her laptop, but Rose had no idea how he'd been able to afford to buy the book and card. So, she decided to ask him.

"Theta, how did you afford to buy this?"

Theta shrugged, although he looked rather please with himself.

"Sold some stuff," he answered casually.

"What do you mean 'sold some stuff'?" Rose asked, beginning to panic slightly.

She hated the idea of her son selling his toys just to buy her a present for some stupid day she didn't even care about.

"Sold some of the football cards Uncle Tony bought me. Don't worry, I kept most of them, I only sold the doubles. Oh, and I did some tutoring at school too, some kids in my science class wanted help."

"Oh, Theta, you didn't have to do that! I'd have been happy with just a card!" Rose told her son, smiling gently and ruffling his unruly brown hair.

Theta frowned.

"But you deserve more than just a card!" he protested "Besides, I don't mind. I just sold some stuff I don't use anymore. I'd trade in the world for you if it made you happy,"

And, for what seemed like the hundredth time that week, Rose couldn't help but see the Doctor in her son. Speechless, she dropped a kiss on Theta's forehead.

"Now," Theta piped up cheekily "I'm starving! How about that breakfast?"


End file.
